


Your Place To Return To

by AnimationFans



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Disregards everything after chapter 699, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friends to Lovers, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, M/M, Post-Chapter 699
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-10
Updated: 2016-07-10
Packaged: 2018-07-22 17:26:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7447771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnimationFans/pseuds/AnimationFans
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Sasuke can’t seem to give himself a break and Naruto steps up and do something about it (and he may have confess his feelings in the process).</p>
            </blockquote>





	Your Place To Return To

Four months. That’s how long it takes for Sasuke to finish his first journey and return to the village. It’s not a long time, considered that Sasuke had left Konoha for years before Naruto finally managed to bring him back. However, for Naruto, the time seems to drag on when Sasuke is not in the village. Don’t get him wrong, he’s satisfied with his life in the village. Receiving training to become the seventh Hokage and leading a hectic life has been tough but endurable for him, but sometimes when he finally has the time to rest, all he can think about is Sasuke. He would wonder how far away Sasuke is right now (even though he knows that this time he will come back for sure), he would worry if Sasuke has been taking care of himself (because he knows that Sasuke has a tendency of getting hurt and not giving a fuck about it). And now, after worrying about Sasuke for so long, he’s finally back. 

When Naruto greets Sasuke at the entrance of the village, the first thing Naruto notices is that he has grown a little thinner. He frowns: “Have you been eating properly?” Sasuke raises his eyebrows, as if surprised that the first thing Naruto says to him is not a proper greeting. “Of course I have. Stop fretting over stuff like this, Naruto.” Naruto snorts and replies:“Fine, after you report back to Kakashi sensei, meet me at Ichiraku, will ya? There’s a new ramen flavour with extra tomatoes. I bet you’ll like it.” Sasuke’s indifferent expression finally cracks and his mouthline curves a little upwards for the first time since he enters the village: “Okay.”

After reporting back to Kakashi, Sasuke heads straight towards Ichiraku. It’s strange, to think that he has left Konoha for years and yet he still knows this place so well. This used to be his home, he reminds himself bitterly, but not anymore, there will never be any other place for him to go back to. His home perish along with his clan, with Itachi when he said: “Forgive me, Sasuke, this is the last time.”, when he left those bloodstains on his forehead. A part of him died when he knew the truth about his brother, about how Konoha brutally wipe out his clan and forces such cruelty on his brother, about how Itachi actually values him over his own life. The thought of revenge towards Konoha is what that makes him manage to move forward, that prevents him from crumbling down the moment he knew the truth. Even until now, he never regrets the decision because that’s the path he chooses. After the last fight with Naruto at the Valley of The End, he may no longer want to destroy Konoha anymore because he believes Naruto can change it, but this place will always be a wound in his heart that would never be able to heal. 

Naruto is already waiting for Sasuke at the ramen stall when he arrives. And it turns out that Sasuke really likes the new flavour that he recommends. When Sasuke begrudgingly admits that the flavour is acceptable, Naruto lets outs a triumphant: “I told you so!” Sasuke just smirks and bites back: “Usuratonkachi.”, and for a small while, it seems exactly just like when they were young. 

“By the way, you are staying at my place, since your house’s not ready yet.” “I know, Kakashi has already told me. It’s fine, I’ll leave again in a few days anyway.” “What? So soon?! ” Sasuke doesn’t tell Naruto that he feels suffocated when he’s here, that he sees the ghosts of his clans every corner he turns, that his nightmares increased drastically during his stay at Konoha before he started his first journey. Instead, he just replies after a pregnant pause: “It is a big world outside, I want to use my time wisely.”

After that awkward conversation, both of them remain silent even after they reach Naruto’s place. Sasuke must have been really exhausted because he falls asleep as soon as he hits the pillow. Naruto, on the other hand can’t sleep no matter how hard he tries, and he doesn’t want to toss and turn for fear of waking Sasuke up, so he just opts for staring at Sasuke. Sasuke’s features are soft when he sleeps, gone was the expression of guard and wariness, gone was the tense in his shoulders and the stiff in his jaw. But this only lasts for a few minutes before Sasuke’s face scrunches up and lets out a small grunt of pain. 

Alarmed, Naruto notices that there are some red stains that weren’t there before on Sasuke’s shirt. Anxiety grips him and he wakes Sasuke up rougher than he would have like it. “Sasuke, come on, wake up! You are bleeding!” Sasuke blinks his eyes blearily, looking a little out of it. Naruto peels off his shirt and there’s a bandage around Sasuke’s abdomen and it’s already soaked with blood. “You bastard, why didn’t you tell me?!” “It’s no big deal, I’ve already bandaged it.” “Yeah, and you did such a terrific job at it! Tell me, who did this?” He feels this urge to hunt that person down and make him suffer and pay for even daring to lay hands on Sasuke. Sasuke seems to sense that Naruto is not going to back down this time, so he finally relents and sighs: “Some extremists. When I was a day away from reaching the village, this group of jounins attacked me, yelling something about Uchichas have no right to live.” Naruto’s heart clenched painfully:“But who could hurt you? Hell, they couldn’t even graze you if you-” Naruto’s sentence stops abruptly, his face pales when he remembers what Kakashi told Sasuke before he left the village. Sasuke has limitations, he can’t use those jutsus as freely as when he’s a missing-nin. If he’s to harm others or cause a ruckus at other villages, he would have to answer to the village. Even though Sasuke’s very strong, if he’s restricted to only incapacitate others rather than hurting them, and if those people are so driven by hatred that they would stop at nothing to hurt Sasuke...Naruto fears to think of the possible outcome. 

Wordlessly, Naruto takes out the first aid kit and starts treating Sasuke’s wound. After he’s done, he can’t help but asks a little pressingly:“Why would you leave the village so soon again? Your wound can’t have heal in such a short time.” “Because I can’t bear to stay at this village any longer than that!” Sasuke finally yells. Damn it, why does Naruto have to force the answer out of him?! “So you’d rather disregard your health and endanger yourself than stay at the village?” “Yes! You don’t know how hard it is-” Naruto doesn’t give him a chance to finish his sentence. He grips Sasuke’s shoulders and looks him straight in the eyes. “Stop,”Naruto growls, “Just.Stop. For once, let me take care of you. People out there may think you are ruthless to others but in truth the one you are being most cruel to is yourself!” Then, his voice softens: “I know you think you don’t have a home anymore, but please...”The lump in Naruto’s throat isn’t making this any easier, but he manages to get the words out: “Let me be your place to return to.” 

Sasuke’s eyes widened, then he asks softly: “Why? Why do you care so much about me?” He expects the usual “Because we are friends.”, instead Naruto surprises him when he replies: “Because of this.” and seals Sasuke’s lips with his own. Naruto realizes that he sees Sasuke more as a friend when Hinata confesses to him two months ago and he rejects her because he can’t seem to get Sasuke out of his mind. He realizes it when he blurts out to Kakashi sensei that Sasuke can live with him even though Sasuke’s house is ready for him to move in a month ago. He realizes it when he sees Sasuke by his side today and the emptiness he felt these few months were gone, replaced by nothing but happiness and content. “I love you, I don’t know when it starts, hell, it probably started way back when I was still claiming we were friends. So, will you give me a chance?” Sasuke is startled for a moment, before he answers with a small smile: “I don’t see why not.”

**Author's Note:**

> I actually only start watching Naruto this year, and the reason I start watching was because I watched Boruto last year in the cinemas. The movie was really good and I just really love the chemistry between Naruto and Sasuke. After watching the anime episodes and manga (I didn’t watch and read all of them) , I am really heartbroken that they didn’t end up together. I know that BL couples are rarely made canon, but an open ending would have been good enough. So I write my own ending for them. Both of them deserve happiness after the shit they have went through and in my opinion, the way they find happiness is through each other.  
> This is my first work of Narusasu. Comments and suggestions are welcomed!


End file.
